Why haven’t your promotion and raise come around yet?

People always say, “I work hard and diligently. Why haven’t I gotten my promotion or raise yet?” Hold on—what does “work hard and diligently” actually mean? Not showing up late or leaving early, and completing tasks on time to get 60–80 points? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? If you can’t even do that, then there’s a problem—that’s called “being unable to perform the job,” okay? So why would you even start thinking about a promotion and raise?

So what kind of person can get promoted and receive a raise? Based on a double perspective—first, as an employee in my first company after graduation, I maintained the fastest record of promotions and raises; and second, as a boss, I’ve promoted and raised the pay of many people—I’d like to offer a bit of advice to everyone.

Do you know why bosses can get a higher share of profit distribution? It’s not about exploitation or “surplus value.” Please—your school’s textbooks are outdated. That whole set of theories hasn’t been the mainstream in the world for a long time. The value of something depends on supply and demand. And a boss’s profit distribution comes from risk compensation after taking on uncertainty—not from labor itself, and not from labor time.

As a boss, no matter how much labor you do, it’s still only an individual contribution. You can’t say that one person’s labor—like Ma Yun’s—equals the labor of tens of thousands of people at Alibaba. That’s not realistic. Then why does Ma Yun still get the highest profit distribution ratio? Because if the results of the labor can’t be sold, Ma Yun loses money—not everyone else. That’s really all there is to it—he assumes the risk first, and only then can he reap the rewards.

Someone might say, “I’m willing too—I’ll take Ma Yun’s place. If Alibaba’s products don’t sell, that loss is on me, and I’ll take the profits. Is that okay?” No, because their business has already stabilized—that’s their achievement. You can’t go around stealing the fruits of others’ labor. If you’re capable, then go start a brand-new venture yourself, take the risk that your labor outcomes might not sell, and then the profits can belong to you. Would you do that? That’s what fairness looks like.

So what use does this have, as an employee? It’s extremely important.

I’ve said before that in essence, everyone is working for themselves—working for their own resume, working for their own work experience. As for bosses and employees—that’s just a label. The idea of putting “capitalists” and “working people” in opposition is the stupidest thing; it doesn’t get to the essence of the matter at all. How do you get a higher share of profit distribution? Organizations are nested layer by layer. Outside the organization, there are bigger organizations. Similarly, inside the organization, there are smaller organizations too. Can you become the “boss” of a department? Can you become the “boss” of a particular project?

Some people say, “I get it—it means being a department head or a project manager, right?” Yes and no. Whether you’re a department head or a project manager, it’s still only a label. Why do you care so much about labels? What you should care about is what role you actually play inside the organization, what you’re doing, what impact you’re having—and why you deserve to distribute profits. Based on what? If bosses get their profit distribution through risk compensation, then if you want to become the “boss of a smaller organization,” don’t you also need to take on risk? Have you taken it on? If you haven’t—no matter whether things go well or poorly, you still just follow the routine and get paid your salary—how could you possibly get a larger share of the distribution? That’s not reasonable. So no matter what level of “boss” you are, if you want a bigger share, you must take on higher risk and manage uncertainty. What does that mean? It’s like a subcontractor: you shift part of the risk from the big boss onto yourself, and you turn uncertain things into certain ones. You say, “Hand this project to me. If I can’t deliver, I’ll pay for the losses—or even if I don’t end up losing money, I’ll automatically resign.” You stake your career on it, making people believe that every day you will spend 24 hours making it happen. Then, on top of that, if you’ve shown that you have a certain level of ability, the whole project is entrusted to you: the assistant is assigned to you, the project profit split is set, and then you get promoted and receive a raise. That’s it. So what is this? It’s called risk outsourcing. If you pull it off, you can get the risk premium. It’s not that the boss says, “Do this,” and then you just do it, finishing or not finishing by the time you clock out—getting your pay on schedule. Even the boss might give you a complete SOP list. But what you’re doing then is just “coasting.” Coasting doesn’t lead to high returns, because you haven’t reduced the uncertainty of risk—this uncertainty is still with the boss. In the end, the boss remains the only person who worries about every step of the concrete execution 24/7. If things go wrong, the consequences are borne only by the boss. So do you know why some people keep getting promoted higher and higher? It’s not because they have special skills, or because they’re just very good at flattering people—there are plenty of skilled people, and plenty of people who know how to suck up. As long as the stakes are high enough, everyone can sell their dignity and be obsequious. But it doesn’t matter—those are just icing on the cake. What truly matters is that these people have always treated their work in the form of “internal entrepreneurship.” They bear pressure, bear results, and bear risk; they can turn every uncertain thing into something certain through their own hands. And the boss isn’t an idiot—he needs to figure out whether the success is really these people’s achievement, or whether the matter itself is simply easy. So he might try switching to someone else. If he replaces them a few times and it still doesn’t work, then these matters become uncertain again—only then will he be willing to provide these people with the exclusive profit portion of risk compensation. That’s the real logic behind promotions and raises. #BTC下探60000美元关键关口